ALG^. 95 



(Fig. l6), but they do not attach themselves indiscrimi- 

 nately to other objects, or to other threads belonging 

 to other species, or even to the sterile, or the male 

 threads of their own species. Let theorists explain 

 the phenomena as they will, it must be an intelligible 

 theory, capable of accounting for the results, for 

 chance or accident must be entirely outside the 

 calculation. The development of active zoospores 

 is not at all an uncommon event in the life history 

 of Algae, and, when first discovered, led to a great 

 deal of discussion, but in no instance are they 

 accompanied by such startling phenomena as are to 

 be met with in GEdogoniinii, and in a less degree in 

 the allied genus Bidbochcste. 



It was at one time strongly suggested, if not 

 insisted upon, that the articulated Confervre, and 

 especially the Conjugatai and the CEdogoniacet^, had 

 intimate relations with the animal kingdom. The 

 discovery of the mode of reproduction in such genera 

 as CEdogonium led Mr. Hassall to remark that " it 

 throws much light upon the often-canvassed and 

 much-disputed subject of the animality of the conju- 

 gating genera. It proves, since in reality a conjuga- 

 tion is necessary to the formation of every true spore, 

 that all the Conferva; stand upon the same footing as 

 regards their animal nature, and that if those species 

 which exhibit the curious phenomena of conjugation 

 are really animal, so are all the other Confervae 

 mentioned ; that if these should ever, at any 

 subsequent period, be removed from the vegetable 

 kingdom to the animal, so ought, as a sequitur, all the 

 other Confervae alluded to, the CEdogoniacecs and the 



